One Out of Three and Counting

On this Thanksgiving Day, The New York Times published an editorial called "The Poor, The Near Poor and You." In a nutshell, the article stated that "One in three Americans -- 100 million people -- is either poor or perilously close to it." http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/24/opinion/the-poor-the-near-poor-and-you.html

That statistic may be visible in some parts of the country and a total surprise in others, such as affluent Fairfield County where I live. What I found even more disturbing, though, were the comments by many posters, especially those whose comments were highlighted. Some of them dismissed the statistics because so many of the "poor" have air conditioning and should fault themselves for having had children and buying "toys."

It seems to me that many of them missed not only the point of the editorial, but are in denial of what has happened over the past 30 years, and especially since the mid 1990s. Standards have changed. In many areas of the country, air conditioning is not a luxury. During the summer, hospital staff will make sure that the person who is being released goes home in an air conditioned heart to avoid a relapse in the patient's condition. Sure, many people can get building permits for outhouses in their back yards, but is there anything wrong or immoral for everyone to have indoor plumbing?

Many crises bring out the best in people. Think of the footage of terrorism attacks. People helped each other escape to safety. During this economic crises, the cry was let it rip! Anyone who was a casualty of investment losses (as most of us were) were foolish. Anyone who lost his job was just plain lazy or undereducated. It was the 1 percent versus the 99 percent.

Actually, that's a fallacy. Eighty percent of the people are gainfully employed and I daresay that the majority are hardly smug about that. Which makes the rift even bigger and more dangerous. Occupy Wherever may go into hibernation soon, but it will come out roaring again.